Pfthb

I have the following structure

main.py
module/
 properties.yaml
 file.py

file.py relevant code:

def read_properties():
 with open('properties.yaml') as file:
 properties = yaml.load(file)

main.py relevant code:

from module import file
file.read_properties()

When read_properties() is called within main.py, I get the following error: FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'properties.yaml'

What is the recommended way of allowing my module to access the properties file even when imported?

Provide the absolute path to properties.yaml:

with open('/Users/You/Some/Path/properties.yaml') as file:

As JacobIRR said in his answer, it is best to use the absolute path to the file. I use the os module to construct the absolute path based on the current working directory. So for your code it would be something like:

import os
working_directory = os.path.dirname(__file__)
properties_file = os.path.join(working_directory, 'module', 'properties.yaml')

Based on answers from @JacobIRR and @BigGerman

I ended up using pathlib instead of os, but the logic is the same.
Here is the syntax with pathlib for those interested:

in file.py:

from pathlib import Path
properties_file = Path(__file__).resolve().parent/"properties.yaml"
with open(properties_file) as file:
 properties = yaml.load(file)